Animating Biology

Carnegie Mellon's Office of Technology for Education and Department of
Biological Sciences create multimedia materials for teaching and learning
Biology. After an analysis of a number of Biology courses was performed
to identify when and how shared concepts where taught, a team of biologists,
media programmers, and learning experts came together to create animations
designed to improve understanding of some of the main concepts taught in
Modern Biology and Biochemistry.

Materials listed by category

Cell Membranes

Phosopholipid Membranes

Biological Membranes

Biological membranes are dynamic structures composed of a diverse set of phospholipid molecules and proteins. In the case of eukaryotic organisms, they also contain the steroid cholesterol. This animation demonstratess some of the key properties of the membranes.

Phase Transition

Transport

Signal Transdaction

This animation illustrates how binding of a ligand to its receptor ultimately leads to the production of high levels of cAMP, an important second messenger in the signal transduction pathway. This process is mediated by a protein called G-Protein.

Serine Protease

The tutorial shows the chemical mechanism of serine proteases, enzymes that in the family differ only in their substrate specificity.The Trypsin for example is an extracellular protease that hydrolyzes peptide bonds during digestion in the small intestine.

Symport - Lactose Permease Transporter

The Escherichia coli lactose permease is an example of secondary active transport (Campbell, p. 210). This enzyme is similar in structure to others in the major facilitator superfamily (MFS) of transporters. More than 1000 examples of MFS transporters have been identified in the genomes of bacteria, plants, and animals.

ATP Synthesis

This tutorial explains the synthesizing of ATP from a proton gradient across the inner mitochondrial membrane. This gradient was established by the pumping of protons across the membrane during the transport of electrons from NADH and FADH2 to oxygen.

Endocytosis

Endocytosis/Receptor Mediated Endocytosis

Many macromolecules are taken into the cell by a process described as endocytosis. The macromolecules do not pass through the membrane directly to the cytoplasm but instead are taken up by the cell, processed by cell and then delivered to the cytoplasm. For many of the endocytic processes, the uptake of the molecule is very specific and is controlled by recognition of the molecule by a specific receptor on the surface of the cell. This process is called Receptor Mediated Endocytosis.

Macropinocytosis

This tutorial describes how macromolecules are processed by cell and then delivered to the cytoplasm. For many of the endocytic processes, the uptake of the molecule is very specific and is controlled by recognition of the molecule by a specific receptor on the surface of the cell. This process is called also Receptor Mediated Endocytosis.

DNA/RNA

DNA Replication

The enzymatic and structural features of DNA replication in all organisms are very similar. These animations illustrate the processes involved in the replication of the Eschericia coli chromosome. The names of the DNA sites, enzymes, and other protein factors differ in viruses and in eukaryotic organisms, however, the basic features have been highly conserved in evolution. In E. coli, DNA replication begins at a single site on the chromosome called "OriC".

DNA Transcription

This tutorial shows the steps involved in transcribing DNA into mRNA. Transcription is illustrated using the E. coli lactose operon (lac) where transcription is regulated negatively by the lac repressor and positively by CAP-cAMP complex.

RNA Translation - Protein Synthesis

The biosynthesis of proteins involves translation of the information contained in the mRNA into a polypeptide sequence. Each triplet of bases in the mRNA encodes one amino acid. The translation is accomplished by the ribosome with the use of specialized RNA molecules called transfer RNA, or tRNA. The tRNA molecules bind to the mRNA and deliver the correct amino acid to the growing polypeptide chain.